The North American Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene continues to expand on the list of annual events as after three weeks of intense competition in the Georgian city of Atlanta, Turner Sports' brand ELEAGUE returns this weekend with the last round of their league's group stage!
Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer's FaZe Clan, G2 Esports, North, Fnatic, the revamped Cloud 9 roster and
Vincent 'Happy' Cervoni's Team EnVy are six out of eight in total teams that managed to reach the playoffs.
The playoffs are scheduled to run from 10th to 13th of October inside the ELEAGUE Arena, but the fourth and final group of the competition is yet about to begin.
The last two remaining spots for the playoffs will be determined this weekend as Group D is about to blast off with the following four well established teams competing live on the stage in the state of Georgia:
SK Gaming
( FalleN ♔ | fer | coldzera | TACO | felps )
Astralis Denmark
( gla1ve ♔ | dupreeh | device | Xyp9x | Kjaerbye )
Team Liquid
( stanislaw ♔ | nitr0 | EliGE | jdm64 | Twistzz )
Heroic
( Snappi ♔ | MODDII | niko | JUGI | es3tag )
Our round one opponent will be the Danish team Heroic led by Counter-Strike 1.6 veteran
Marco 'Snappi' Pfeiffer. The Danes had successful moments against our Brazilian squad in the past, but should not pose a serious threat this weekend in Atlanta, if we take in consideration their recent form, which includes two unsatisfying placements at minor DreamHack tournaments, Valencia and Atlanta respectively, against teams with significantly less firepower than our own.
Regardless of winning or losing the opening group match against the Danish team,
Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo and company will later face either the Danish powerhouse and ELEAGUE Major Atlanta 2017 champions Astralis or the recently on the rise North American talents of Team Liquid.
SK Gaming's most recent showdown against
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander's Astralis on LAN was the devastating defeat during PGL Major Krakow 2017, where our Brazilians failed to overcome the Danes in the quarter-finals of the eleventh official Valve-sponsored major tournament. This particular result however should not serve as a troublesome factor for our Brazilians as the match took place two months ago before the summer break and things have inevitably changed since then. Both teams might have nearly equal strengths on their map choices, but luckily our Brazilian division is one step further when it comes to pure individual skill level.
Likewise, our team's overall performance to this moment is better than the Danish squad's after the aforementioned summer break, albeit not praiseworthy. If we defeat Heroic in the opening match of Group D as expected considering we are the undeniable favorites, Astralis should not be too much of a hassle in a best-of-one challenge leading to the playoffs of ELEAGUE's $1,000,000 CS:GO Premier challenge!
On the other side meeting the North Americans of Team Liquid in the upper bracket of the group poses a whole different story. Our Brazilian division lost two consecutive semi-finals against Team Liquid, first at ESG Tour Mykonos 2017 and later at ESL One New York 2017. Despite the North American side being absent from the major tournament held in Poland before the summer break, Team Liquid's performance ever since after ESL One Cologne 2017 has been gently said astonishing.
Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski and former Counter Logic Gaming AWP-er
Josh 'jdm64' Marzano are continuously delivering big scores for their team and there are no signs of their individual performance slowing down with their latest addition, the Canadian youngster and former Team SoloMid player
Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken.
Regardless of their recent achievements and current form, our Counter-Strike team is still the favorite out of the entire group and moreover FalleN's homework can indeed turn the tide in our favor once again!

Ready or not, we are hungrily heading towards this weekend's challenge in Atlanta!
(Photo courtesy of ELEAGUE.com)
This weekend's showdown will use GSL-style double elimination group format with the upper bracket being set to best-of-one, while the elimination and decider matches extended to best-of-three series.
The schedule for the fourth and final week of ELEAGUE Premier CS:GO challenge's group stage is the following:
30th of September, Saturday:
00:00 CEST -
Astralis Denmark vs.
Team Liquid
01:15 CEST -
SK Gaming vs.
Heroic
04:00 CEST - Group stage - Upper bracket final
20:00 CEST - Group stage - Elimination match
22:30 CEST - Group stage - Decider match
More information about Turner Sports' return to competitive Counter-Strike can be found here. Results and statistics from the current third season can as well be found in our plentiful in data esports index.
Last, but not least, do not hesitate to show your support to our players over the social networks using #RUNSKG or #VAMOSSK or by simply writing down a comment in the designated section below.
Stay tuned to SK Gaming for more news and updates.


The playoffs are scheduled to run from 10th to 13th of October inside the ELEAGUE Arena, but the fourth and final group of the competition is yet about to begin.
The last two remaining spots for the playoffs will be determined this weekend as Group D is about to blast off with the following four well established teams competing live on the stage in the state of Georgia:

( FalleN ♔ | fer | coldzera | TACO | felps )

( gla1ve ♔ | dupreeh | device | Xyp9x | Kjaerbye )

( stanislaw ♔ | nitr0 | EliGE | jdm64 | Twistzz )

( Snappi ♔ | MODDII | niko | JUGI | es3tag )
Our round one opponent will be the Danish team Heroic led by Counter-Strike 1.6 veteran

Regardless of winning or losing the opening group match against the Danish team,

SK Gaming's most recent showdown against

Likewise, our team's overall performance to this moment is better than the Danish squad's after the aforementioned summer break, albeit not praiseworthy. If we defeat Heroic in the opening match of Group D as expected considering we are the undeniable favorites, Astralis should not be too much of a hassle in a best-of-one challenge leading to the playoffs of ELEAGUE's $1,000,000 CS:GO Premier challenge!
On the other side meeting the North Americans of Team Liquid in the upper bracket of the group poses a whole different story. Our Brazilian division lost two consecutive semi-finals against Team Liquid, first at ESG Tour Mykonos 2017 and later at ESL One New York 2017. Despite the North American side being absent from the major tournament held in Poland before the summer break, Team Liquid's performance ever since after ESL One Cologne 2017 has been gently said astonishing.



Regardless of their recent achievements and current form, our Counter-Strike team is still the favorite out of the entire group and moreover FalleN's homework can indeed turn the tide in our favor once again!

Ready or not, we are hungrily heading towards this weekend's challenge in Atlanta!
(Photo courtesy of ELEAGUE.com)
This weekend's showdown will use GSL-style double elimination group format with the upper bracket being set to best-of-one, while the elimination and decider matches extended to best-of-three series.
The schedule for the fourth and final week of ELEAGUE Premier CS:GO challenge's group stage is the following:
30th of September, Saturday:
00:00 CEST -


01:15 CEST -


04:00 CEST - Group stage - Upper bracket final
20:00 CEST - Group stage - Elimination match
22:30 CEST - Group stage - Decider match
More information about Turner Sports' return to competitive Counter-Strike can be found here. Results and statistics from the current third season can as well be found in our plentiful in data esports index.
Last, but not least, do not hesitate to show your support to our players over the social networks using #RUNSKG or #VAMOSSK or by simply writing down a comment in the designated section below.
Stay tuned to SK Gaming for more news and updates.

Evgeni Chardakov
Counter-Strike expert, writer, analyst and former competitive player with more than 15 years of experience within the discipline. Working with SK Gaming and ESEA.


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